Chapter 263 – Side Story 12 – Egger Goes to the Demon Realm (1)

While the young lady and the boys were meeting with the President of South Korea, Knight Egger was scratching his head with a troubled expression.

“This is problematic…”

The place where he stood now was neither Ea, Earth, nor the land of the Divine Tree.

Red sky, ground made of piled bones, and air filled with a terrible stench.

This was the world where monsters lived, the origin of the Demon King, the place Ea’s people called the demon realm.

“How did it come to this? I heard everything was going well until recently…”

At the troubled spot where he stood, objects that didn’t belong in this strange world were scattered about.

Torn tents and broken boxes, shattered weapons and abandoned food, and even red bloodstains remaining on the items.

This was the location where the gate connecting Ea to the demon realm had been.

It was the forward base for Ea’s people’s assault on the demon realm.

Unlike the base they had created on Earth while chasing the Demon King—a base filled with the greed of the allied forces—this base was truly meant for exploring the demon realm.

A forward base to find the cause of the Demon King’s emergence and confirm the origin of monsters.

It was a base created by the hero, who had spent a long time tracing back the gate from the demon realm that had appeared around the time of Egger’s wedding.

‘That was quite a commotion back then.’

The hero bursting into the wedding venue, the entire continent, including the Empire, being thrown into chaos as they rushed to where the gate had opened.

Given that the Demon King who had devastated half the continent had died not long before, such a reaction wasn’t strange, but because of it, he and his wives had to fight monsters without even properly finishing their wedding ceremony.

Contrary to expectations, not many monsters had poured out, and what connected to the demon realm was not a gate but merely a rift, but it was enough to make the Empire and the people of the continent tense.

As a result, the Empire focused more on strengthening its military than on recovery, and mages and the hero continued their research on the Demon King and the demon realm.

‘Thanks to that, my domain was able to develop without having to be mindful of others…’

The problem was that the hero’s future, which had been carefully prepared, was ruined.

The hero had been a connection that Egger had worked hard to prepare for his relationship with the Imperial family, but indeed, not everything in the world went according to his wishes.

“He succeeded in marrying the princess… but I never thought he would become so obsessed with the Demon King.”

Though it was natural for a hero, this hero was too extreme in that regard.

Perhaps because he had once lost his position as a hero, this hero seemed obsessively dedicated to catching monsters and obtaining information about the Demon King.

As a result, the hero did not become an influential noble in the Imperial family but remained merely a hero with high honor.

Of course, that wasn’t bad either, but considering the effort put into the hero, it was certainly a disappointing investment.

The shattered forward base before his eyes was the same.

Instead of comfortably playing the role of a noble in the Imperial capital, the hero had created this forward base with mages, searching for the location of the gate and monsters.

He had heard that it had been operating well for several years, but when he came to see it directly, it was shattered with only dust blowing around.

“Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like the hero is dead…”

Even examining the traces, it didn’t seem like the hero had died.

Of course, it seemed many others had died.

“This is really troublesome. There are no survivors, I don’t know where the hero went, and I can’t return immediately either.”

If this were a place like Ea or Earth, he could have examined the remaining traces to track the hero, but this was the demon realm, a place he was visiting for the first time.

A place filled with corrupted mana.

In the shattered forward base, no mana remained, having been consumed by the corrupted mana, and other blood and traces had been absorbed by the demon realm’s ground, leaving nothing behind.

Moreover, with no mages in sight and the gate destroyed, he couldn’t return to Ea until Yelena opened the gate again.

“But I can’t just wander around looking for the hero without a plan either.”

Unlike Earth, this demon realm was a world he didn’t know.

“In any case, I need a guide to move around…”

It was absurd to think of using the hero as a guide, but Egger couldn’t think of any other method.

“Anyway, I should set up a base here again, if only for the gate.”

Egger sighed as he stroked the bracelet on his left arm.

Woooong.

A black hole immediately appeared in the air.

Egger reached into the hole and pulled out a large, well-packaged tent.

Not the kind of tent used by Ea’s people, but a tent used by Earth people.

Egger continued to take out items even after retrieving the tent.

Camping equipment and heaters, as well as various iron obstacles.

Amazingly, the amount Egger took out of the hole was enough to create a place for a small group to stay together, not just for an individual camper.

Enough to rebuild the shattered forward base.

This wasn’t an amount that could come from a space-expanded bag with the capacity of one or two carts.

Yet Egger hadn’t taken out everything in the hole.

“Should I just take out this much? There’s no reason to take out food, gold won’t be needed here, and guns or other weapons aren’t immediately necessary either.”

The black hole, or rather, the subspace created by the bracelet his wives had made for him, had a space not of one or two carts, but of several containers.

And inside were food, weapons, various necessities, and gold bullion.

Just the gold bullion alone accounted for a third of his domain’s finances inside this bracelet.

The reason Egger wasn’t too worried despite being left alone in the demon realm was partly because of this bracelet.

Egger set up the items he had taken out one by one.

He pitched the tent at an incredible speed and surrounded it with the iron barriers he had taken out.

Then, he turned on the heater, lit the LED lamp, and placed an artifact that purified the air next to it.

It was an artifact his wives had prepared to remove carbon monoxide from the heater, and it was perfect for use in this demon realm.

Then, he placed a cooking pot on the heater and began to cook.

“How long has it been since I went camping?”

Though it was camping alone in the demon realm, which was no different from hell, and on top of a shattered forward base, Egger didn’t mind.

He had stayed in worse places under more difficult conditions more than once or twice.

Of course, since his marriage, he hadn’t traveled alone like this or made his own food,

but absurdly, that made the current situation feel romantic.

He looked at the boiling water and thought about his future plans.

“First, I should rebuild the forward base here, gradually expand it, and search the surroundings?”

If he didn’t contact or return through the gate from here, Yelena would open the gate and come to the demon realm in a month as planned.

When his wives came to the demon realm, he needed to be waiting for them, so he had to return here by then.

For that, he couldn’t be far from this place.

Or he needed a way to return from anywhere.

Unfortunately, since Egger couldn’t use magic, he ultimately couldn’t be far from where the gate would appear.

“It would be good if I could find traces of the hero or other people while searching like that.”

Egger couldn’t think of any other method.

Egger prepared his dishes one by one.

Since it was camping alone after a long time, he made Earth food, or rather, Korean cuisine.

“The kimchi stew turned out well, and the pork belly is delicious. Oh, the sausages are well-grilled too. It seems the sausage processing factory is operating properly.”

He tasted the prepared food and enjoyed camping after a long time.

Thanks to the artifact that purified the air, he couldn’t smell the bizarre odor of the demon realm or feel the unpleasant air,

and the damp, dark red sky seemed to have its own charm when thought of as a filtered sunset.

Of course, the bone-covered ground and desolate plains remained, but thanks to the barriers he had diligently set up, those bones weren’t very visible.

“Since it’s been a while, it’s not bad. No, it’s actually quite nice.”

Though he would get tired of it after a few days, today it really felt like he had gone camping alone.

“Plus, there’s even a fish caught on the hook at just the right time.”

After putting the last piece of meat in his mouth, Egger picked up the sword he had set aside and rose from his seat.

Beyond the barrier, far away on a hill made of bones, a bulky figure had suddenly appeared.

It was a monster.

Considering the distance, it was a massive monster with a height of more than five floors of an apartment building.

“So this is the demon realm indeed. The first monster I encounter is an ultra-large one.”

An ultra-large monster said to be able to turn a decent domain into a wasteland and destroy small countries.

Such a monster was the first to show itself.

“No wonder the base that was here was destroyed.”

It was said that to handle an ultra-large monster, several orders of knights had to be mobilized.

For a forward base without a hero, it would have been difficult to manage.

“Of course, I should check if that beast is the one that destroyed this forward base…”

There was a reason he had come all the way to the demon realm and cooked so noisily.

He needed to signal that there were people here so that monsters would come,

and if he could catch the approaching monsters and check their traces, he might be able to confirm what had happened here and where the remaining people had gone.

Of course, the possibility wasn’t high.

Still, it was more convenient to make them come like this than to diligently search around.

Egger went out to meet the giant lizard, a monster that Ea’s people would call a ground dragon, which was coming toward him over the bone hill.

If he waited there, the fight would involve the tent he had just set up, and it would be destroyed.

As he walked out beyond the barrier and drew his sword, Egger threw the scabbard behind him.

Egger, holding the greatsword with both hands as he walked.

He smiled as he looked at the approaching monster.

“Well, let’s see? How much stronger I’ve become.”

Egger awakened the mana inside his body.

Mana that immediately responded to his call.

The smoothly moving mana was pushed into the sword bit by bit.

Woooong.

The sword began to glow.

It wasn’t glowing faintly like when he first obtained mana, nor was it trembling unstably.

But it wasn’t shining so brightly that it hurt the eyes either.

Just a sword emitting a soft light as if it were natural.

Twenty years of raising children and ruling a domain.

But even during that time, Egger had not put down his sword.

Just as his domain was called the Knight’s Domain, he swung his sword every day with other knights.

Several hours every day, even if it didn’t seem like his skills were improving, he didn’t rest.

And now he was feeling the results.

The faithful mana filling his sword and the feeling that his body and sword had become one.

Though his visible skills and mana didn’t seem much different, he himself could feel that he was completely different from twenty years ago when he was called a Sword Master.

Of course, unlike then, there was no divine power in his body, but he wasn’t worried at all.

Kraaaang!

At the same time, the monster seemed to realize it too.

The giant lizard monster let out a roar as it saw him approaching.

The monster’s roar contained not anger, but bewilderment and fear.

Seeing this, Egger swung his sword.

Though they were still more than a hundred meters apart, for him now, that distance was no different from being right in front of him.

Slash.

The monster’s head soared into the red sky.

Thud.

The massive monster that had lost its head tumbled to the ground.